3 STATES PASS MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The movement to make marijuana available for sick people picked up major
steam this Election Day with voters in Nevada, Arizona and Washington state
approving ballot measures to legalize the drug under certain circumstances.

Nevada passed a constitutional amendment approving medical marijuana,
pending a second ``yes'' vote in 2000. Washington's approval came one year
after voters turned down a broader measure that would have left the door
open to legalizing other drugs.

Arizonans rejected an alternative, ``go-slow'' law in which legislators
urged a delay until the federal government approved the drug. Their vote,
with an early margin of 57 percent to 43 percent, reaffirms their 1996
approval of medical marijuana.

``I think they voted that way because they are angry at the Legislature for
gutting what they did two years ago,'' said John Buttrick of The People
Have Spoken, the group that led the fight against the Legislature's measure.

Michigan voters tackled another medical question, soundly rejecting
physician-assisted suicide. Opponents said the vote reflected
dissatisfaction with the proposed law, not with assisted suicide.

``It may have been a different outcome if they had a very open-ended piece
of legislation that would be accessible to all suffering patients, not just
the terminally ill,'' said Dr. John Finn, executive director of Hospice of
Michigan.

Taxes figured prominently among Tuesday's 235 statewide ballot measures.
South Dakotans rejected a plan to prevent property tax revenues from
financing schools, and Nebraskans nixed a proposal to limit the amount of
money state and local governments could raise through taxes.

Missouri voters amended their constitution to legalize slot machines on
casinos that float in artificial moats. They had already approved riverboat
gambling in 1992, but gambling foes said the ``boats in moats'' -- 10 of
the state's 16 casinos -- didn't qualify.

Missourians also outlawed animal fighting, specifically cockfighting and
bear fighting. Cockfighting was also on its way out in Arizona, and dove
hunting prevailed in Ohio, where voters turned away a ban on the sport.

Massachusetts voters passed a plan to give political candidates substantial
public money if they agree to voluntarily limit their spending and raise
certain small contributions. A similar measure is on the Arizona ballot.

Massachusetts voters also affirmed their support of the state's new
electricity deregulation deal, which opponents had said was too friendly to
utilities and would not save money for average consumers. Californians also
voted on a new deregulation system.

Other ballot initiatives included proposed bans on gay marriage,
affirmative action, forest clearcutting and animal traps.

There was also the usual sprinkling of offbeat items, like the one in
Newport, Maine, sparked by complaints about a resident's topless lawn
mowing. Voters decided to mind their own business -- and not ask their
selectmen to ban display of ``female breasts ... visible from a public way.''

Washington's decision on affirmative action followed a long fight over how
to word the measure. Supporters of the practice favored the question ``Do
you want to end the use of affirmative action for women and minorities?''
But the phrasing voters saw was: ``Shall government entities be prohibited
from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to
individuals or groups based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national
origin?''

Polls taken before the election showed most Washington voters in favor of
affirmative action but supportive of abolishing programs defined as giving
``preferential treatment'' to women and minorities.

There was also history to the gay marriage vote in Hawaii. The question
first arose in 1993 when the state Supreme Court said it was
unconstitutional to refuse marriage licenses to gay men and lesbians
because that denied rights given to heterosexual Hawaiians.

In an effort to satisfy the court, lawmakers passed a bill last year
granting gay and unmarried heterosexual couples some legal rights enjoyed
by married people, hoping the court would then be unable to find
discrimination if the Legislature subsequently banned same-sex marriage.

Alaska's vote was part of a wave of preemptive legislating that swept the
country after the Hawaii ruling as states feared they might have to
recognize gay marriages performed there. To date, 29 states have banned gay
unions, and Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, which denies
federal recognition of gay marriage.

In Michigan, support was initially strong for physician-assisted suicide
but waned when opponents portrayed the initiative as overly complicated and
improperly shielded from government oversight. The measure had a surprising
opponent in Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who has taken part in more than 120
suicides. He said it was too restrictive. Oregon is the only state to
permit assisted suicide.

This election was Round Two for medical marijuana proponents, who ran into
legal blockades in 1996 after successful campaigns to legalize the drug in
Arizona and California. The 1998 measures in four states and the District
of Columbia were written more narrowly, specifying the ailments that
qualify and explicitly saying that marijuana was the only drug at issue.
Opponents nonetheless asserted the initiatives were just a wedge to try to
loosen the nation's drug laws and open the door to open use of LSD and heroin.

Twenty-eight states had previously outlawed intact dilation and extraction,
a procedure that opponents call ``partial birth abortion.'' Courts,
however, have blocked 19 of the laws because their language could apply to
other abortions or failed to provide exceptions to save mothers' lives.

So abortion foes in Washington rephrased their ballot language to shift the
focus from the surgical procedure to the physical state of the mother when
the pregnancy is terminated. Their initiative sought to make it a felony to
kill an infant ``in the process of birth'' and used a new term:
``partial-birth infanticide.''

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski